Crescendo Hard Fork Node has been Announced

The Crescendo Hardfork Node Version v1.0.0 is now live! This release marks the culmination of years of development from KIP1 to KIP15. Users can find the Mainnet Crescendo Release - v1.0.0 at the Rusty Kaspa GitHub.

The hardfork upgrades the Kaspa network from 1 BPS to 10 BPS, boosting transaction throughput, network capacity, and responsiveness with shorter block intervals. 

This is a mandatory upgrade for Kaspa Node Operators, although Dr. Sompolinsky stated he would “phrase it more as a plea; miners can sovereign-ly decide to reject crescendo; checks and balances.” 

Crescendo is set to activate on the mainnet at DAA Score 110,165,000, expected on May 5, 2025, around 15:00 UTC.

Dr. Yonatan Sompolinsky Spoke at the Web3 Festival

Dr. Sompolinsky opened his talk by sharing this X.com post describing how a protocol can override an oracle's price. The majority of his talk will be about oracles and their challenges. 

He then emphasized the differences between rollups and oracles. Rollups primarily address output integrity, while oracles deal with input integrity, which is a much harder problem to solve. With rollups, incorrect outputs can be refuted using zero-knowledge proofs. But with oracles, it's often impossible to prove whether the data—like a price feed—is accurate or up to date.

He argued that current oracle systems rely heavily on incentives and trust assumptions, making them vulnerable, especially when tied to leader-based consensus models like Ethereum. In such systems, both the oracle and the proposer (miner or validator) can collude to manipulate or censor data.

Sompolinsky proposed that proof-of-work DAGs, like Kaspa, can help solve this problem by allowing real-time, decentralized attestations from multiple miners. This could ensure trustworthy oracle data without relying on a single operator. Sompolinsky proposed combining 10 BPS (blocks per second) with a design to average out multiple oracle reports and outlier penalties to reflect prices on-chain accurately.

He concluded by highlighting the absence of a formal academic model for oracle integrity, stressing how this gap continues to affect the blockchain industry. You can watch the full Day 1 video from the Web3 Festival on YouTube, with Dr. Sompolinsky's talk beginning at 7h39min. A standalone clip of his talk is also available on X.com. 

Internet Chaos Resistance

Something blew our minds. At the Web3 Festival Kaspa side event, Sompolinksy demonstrated how DAGKNIGHT, Kaspa's future consensus mechanism, will provide resistance to internet chaos. What is internet chaos? Let's say a portion of the global internet network was temporarily split across certain particular regions. Bitcoin and other single-leader-driven consensus models would be in major trouble. For example, Bitcoin's longest chain rule would greatly fracture as its nodes couldn't communicate in time to select the correct, longer chain (or, more technically specific, the heaviest). As one can imagine, Bitcoin's security would be null. 

Many predict that quantum resistance is the biggest threat to Bitcoin and crypto as a whole; however, a significant hack to the internet's global infrastructure seems more urgent and realistic. Luckily, Kaspa is prepared. 

Yonatan illustrates this with his opening slide on how to withstand a potential internet collapse.

Other speakers and panels of the Kaspa side event included the following:

Kaspa went Unofficial

On April 2, 2025, the @KaspaCurrency X.com (formerly Twitter) account updated its name to include "Unofficial" to emphasize that the network is decentralized and not controlled by any centralized entity. While some supported the name change, it also sparked backlash. A poll was conducted, where the majority voted for "Kaspa." Ultimately, the account was reverted to simply "Kaspa."

In Which We Are All Faceless Until We Have Faces (Part I)

On April 5, 2025, Dr. Yonatan Sompolinsky published an article to Medium, titled In which we are all faceless until we have faces (Part I). In this article, he addressed the recent changes to the Kaspa X.com (formerly Twitter) account discussed above. He wrote, "I am the sole culprit behind the recent sagas surrounding "our" X account and the name of Kaspa's atomic unit."

Sompolinsky tells the story of Terah as an helpful allegory of the times at hand. Terah is a Mesopotamian idol manufacturer from the Midrash of Genesis (tales by Jewish sages). In the tale, Terah leaves his son Abraham to watch over the store. He smashed all the idols except the largest and placed a stick in its hand, claiming it destroyed the others in a quarrel. When Terah protests that idols have no power or awareness, Abraham exposes the contradiction in worshipping lifeless figures.

Sompolinsky poses a fundamental question to the community:

“There is a choice to be made: Are we here for the cozy feeling of a cohesive community with a welcoming center of the hub, or are we committed to penetrating the crypto — thence the broader — market with a p2p electronic cash system and a trustworthy store of value?”

He continues by comparing Kaspa to Bitcoin, asserting:

“Kaspa’s value can be unlocked and recognized only if Kaspa is-looks-feels-smells culturally open-source, practically center-less, constitutionally principled.

The existence of an official social account simply fails the gut check.”

Throughout the article, Sompolinsky reaffirms Kaspa's mission of becoming sound money. He emphasizes that investors must feel Kaspa is a reliable store of value — a safe haven that passes the eye test of institutional credibility. "Kaspa must Bitcoinize," he insists.

The piece also draws cautionary parallels with the Ethereum community and its centralized tendencies.

In conclusion, Dr. Sompolinsky returns to the Terah analogy, urging readers to question appearances—much like Abraham did with the idols—and embrace the discomfort of truth over the comfort of illusion.

CryptoAutos Integrates Kaspa

CryptoAutos announced that they are integrating $KAS currency into their platform. Soon, users will be able to purchase luxury cars on CryptoAutos.com. CryptoAutos is “Disrupting the $4.1T car industry” through “bridging Web2 & Web3 in a dual approach: Global Car Marketplace & RWA platform”.

In February 2025, they acquired a fleet of luxury vehicles in Dubai worth $20M, including brands such as Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and McLaren.

The reception to this integration was wildly positive with users excited to purchase their automobiles with the fastest BlockDAG. So, Kaspa Fam, the only question is “Wen Lambo”?

Crypto Tax Calculator Integrates with Kaspa

As of April 1, 2025, CryptoTax Calculator has integrated KAS into its platform. According to them, “Literally, all you gotta do is copy and paste your Kaspa wallet address into our platform, and let us do our thing 💪.”

CryptoTax Calculator is an official partner with Coinbase and MetaMask, and they boast an Excellent 4.8/5 Stars based on 591 reviews. They support over 3500 cryptocurrency integrations. Users can get started for free. This integration comes just in time for US Kaspaians, who have until April 15, 2025, to file their taxes. We hope you get a refund!

kas-music is Released

Users can choose to visualize either the Kaspa mainnet or testnet and fine-tune the sound settings to their liking. Available musical options include C major, G major, F major, E minor, D minor, and a chromatic scale, with the flexibility to set the scale as ascending or descending. Additionally, users can select from piano, string pizzicato, or string arco for the instrument.

Beyond the sound, Kas-Music offers extensive control over visual elements. Users can refine the aesthetic by adjusting bloom strength, radius, and threshold. There's even an option to connect blocks with lines, enhancing the overall experience. 

In response to the X (formerly Twitter) announcement, Kaspa core developer Shai Wyborski hinted at potential improvements for the sonification of sequential nodes. With its current capabilities already impressive, we eagerly anticipate this visualizer's future evolution.

Next Kaspa Meetup - Crescendo Party!

On Monday, April 7, 2025, from 6:30 PM to 10:00 PM GMT+3, a Kaspa Crescendo Party will occur in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Hosted by Kaspa Ambassador Young-Bibi, the evening will feature several prominent figures from the Kaspa community, including Kaspa founder Dr. Yonatan Sompolinsky. Core developers Michael Sutton, Ori, and Freshair08, along with core researcher Shai Wyborski, are also attending.

The evening's topics include security around blockchain, covenants in Kaspa, bridging programmability over Kaspa, Crescendo, and a surprise.

Attendance requires registration and costs 70 שקלים.

Kaspa Silver Discusses Stablecoins

Kaspa Silver stated that the biggest market Kaspa needs to tap into is the stablecoin market. He shared an article stating that two-thirds of the $2T+ cryptocurrency market is attributed to stablecoins. He believes that the Stablecoin market is only going to grow over the coming years. This is bolstered by the Digital Asset Summit of 2025, where US President Donald Trump stated that there needs to be "common sense rules" for stablecoins. 

The video goes into detail on the Chainalysis article, "Stablecoins 101: Behind crypto's most popular asset - Chainalysis" and how this applies to Kaspa. Kaspa, with its high-speed, scalable blockchain, is well-positioned to disrupt this space and offer a superior alternative for stablecoin transactions.

Kaspa Accepted Here

The Kaspa channel has debuted a new series, "Kaspa Accepted Here,”" hosted by KASmedia's Rhubarbarian. The episodes are available in the "Kaspa Merchants" Playlist. 

In the second episode, Rhubarbarian interviews Wolf, a Kaspa holder and entrepreneur from Wolfy's Bar in London. Wolf shares how he used £300,000 earned from crypto investments to open his bar. He also discusses how he uses NFTs to offer his patrons free coffee and discounts of up to 30%. With over 20 years of experience in banking and business ownership, Wolf emphasizes that "crypto is going to become brand extensions rather than a way to make money with money."

Wolf summarizes Kaspa's mission: "It's not just about accepting a fast, secure, decentralized currency—it's about building an ecosystem… it's about changing lives."